Open day at PISAI

Saturday 12 March the PISAI hosted an open day organized by the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue of the USG (Union of Superiors General) and the UISG (International Union Superiors General). After a warm welcome by Don Valentino Cottini, Rector of PISAI, Father Diego Sarrió Cucarella, Director of Studies, introduced the goals and methods of the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies. At 11h00 Professor Jon Hoover gave a lecture entitled “Violence and Non-Violence in the Islamic Tradition”.
Jon Hoover is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom and a minister in the Mennonite Church USA. He studied and taught in Egypt for ten years, working primarily at Dar Comboni for Arabic Studies. He also taught at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut for five years. His primary research focuses on the medieval theologian Ibn Taymiyya, and he has also written several articles on Christian-Muslim relations.